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Please Twins! is a follow-on (not a real sequel) to Please Teacher!, which I have reviewed previously.
The motivating idea behind Please Twins! appears to be, "How do we top Please Teacher!'s clever mix of inappropriate teacher-student romance and alien invasion? How about incest (but not really, kind of sort of, maybe?)!"
Maiku Kamishiro is a half-Japanese orphan with odd-colored eyes and a photograph of himself and a little girl in a wading pool, with a house in the background. Both children in the photo are around two or three years old, and the girl has the same odd-colored eyes that Maiku does.
Maiku is currently in high school, and earns money by doing computer programming after school and on weekends. At some point before the anime starts, Maiku was watching a news report of an event from the precursor anime, Please Teacher!, and recognizes a house behind the reporter as the same house that appears in his photograph. Consumed with curiosity, he arranges to rent the house, which has fallen into disrepair, so he is able to afford it on his high-school-programmer's earnings. His hard work to make the place livable also occurs before the anime begins, and is mentioned only to set the scene and explain why this kid is living alone in this house and why the school turns a blind eye both to his lack of adult supervision and to his against-the-rules moonlighting. No, I take it back. They never explain why the school turns a blind eye, they just establish that they do. Presumably the school authorities are too busy failing to intervene in the mass of student-teacher romances and alien invaders to be bothered with one kid who's merely working his ass off to try and make a life for himself.
The actual story starts on the day that the girl in the photograph, also an orphan with a copy of Maiku's photograph, also possessing the same odd eye color, and also inspired by the news story showing her childhood home, arrives on Maiku's doorstep. The twist is that this happens twice that day, with two different girls--Miina Miyafuji, the outgoing, athletic redhead, and Karen Onodera, the shy and reserved girl with the green hair.
The three quickly decide that the ONLY POSSIBLE EXPLANATION for three kids to have the same photograph and the same uncommon eye color is that ONE of the girls is Maiku's twin, and THE OTHER girl is just some random stranger. The thought that maybe the photograph doesn't show the whole family NEVER EVEN OCCURS TO THEM. Because that would be crazy, right? But how to tell which girl is what one and what one is whom*?
Additionally, neither girl has anyplace else to go, both having run away from foster homes that were problematic for various reasons. So obviously, Maiku, who has gotten to like his privacy, has no choice but to let the cute girls both stay at his house. After all, he might be related to one of them, right? And the other one might be a stranger!
This being a Please Whatever! anime, inappropriate (but possibly not!) romantic hijinks begin to ensue. Each girl develops feelings for Maiku, which are reciprocated in Maiku's repressed and over-responsible special little way.
Adding variety to the cast and complications to the plot are:
Kousei Shimazaki, Maiku's classmate who is doing a very poor job of concealing the fact that he is gay** and has a crush on Maiku. In addition, Kousei has a Secret.
Tsubaki Oribe, a busty*** upperclassman with feelings of her own for Maiku. Her mature personality and chest make her an instant threat to whichever of Miina and Karen is not Maiku's sister. Tsubaki has a History. Alas, this story takes place in the "Onegai-verse" ("Onegai" being Japanese for "Please"), so the Established Romantic Interest is doomed to be cast aside almost instantly.
Several characters recur from Please Teacher!, including the titular**** teacher, her husband, and his friends. Their role is largely to make snarky comments and to complicate things as much as possible for their own amusement.
So another harem-ish (when you include Kousei and Tsubaki) comedy-ish anime series, which skirts taboo by contriving unbelievable reasons why what you're watching isn't problematic after all, but which in the end doesn't really flaunt it either, so the effect is more "Umm, what?" than "Ew."
Watchable, but there's better--and funnier--stuff out there.
*With apologies to Dr. Seuss.
**I have yet to see a gay character in an anime who wasn't a strong indication that you wouldn't have to scratch Japanese society very deeply to find significant cultural homophobia, particularly given the straight male characters' usual reaction to them. This could I guess be a result of the specific subset of Japanese media that I have exposed myself to, so I try not to think too much about it.
***It's a plot point, I swear! I'm not mentioning it just for the obvious sexist reasons!
****OK, that was gratuitous.
The motivating idea behind Please Twins! appears to be, "How do we top Please Teacher!'s clever mix of inappropriate teacher-student romance and alien invasion? How about incest (but not really, kind of sort of, maybe?)!"
Maiku Kamishiro is a half-Japanese orphan with odd-colored eyes and a photograph of himself and a little girl in a wading pool, with a house in the background. Both children in the photo are around two or three years old, and the girl has the same odd-colored eyes that Maiku does.
Maiku is currently in high school, and earns money by doing computer programming after school and on weekends. At some point before the anime starts, Maiku was watching a news report of an event from the precursor anime, Please Teacher!, and recognizes a house behind the reporter as the same house that appears in his photograph. Consumed with curiosity, he arranges to rent the house, which has fallen into disrepair, so he is able to afford it on his high-school-programmer's earnings. His hard work to make the place livable also occurs before the anime begins, and is mentioned only to set the scene and explain why this kid is living alone in this house and why the school turns a blind eye both to his lack of adult supervision and to his against-the-rules moonlighting. No, I take it back. They never explain why the school turns a blind eye, they just establish that they do. Presumably the school authorities are too busy failing to intervene in the mass of student-teacher romances and alien invaders to be bothered with one kid who's merely working his ass off to try and make a life for himself.
The actual story starts on the day that the girl in the photograph, also an orphan with a copy of Maiku's photograph, also possessing the same odd eye color, and also inspired by the news story showing her childhood home, arrives on Maiku's doorstep. The twist is that this happens twice that day, with two different girls--Miina Miyafuji, the outgoing, athletic redhead, and Karen Onodera, the shy and reserved girl with the green hair.
The three quickly decide that the ONLY POSSIBLE EXPLANATION for three kids to have the same photograph and the same uncommon eye color is that ONE of the girls is Maiku's twin, and THE OTHER girl is just some random stranger. The thought that maybe the photograph doesn't show the whole family NEVER EVEN OCCURS TO THEM. Because that would be crazy, right? But how to tell which girl is what one and what one is whom*?
Additionally, neither girl has anyplace else to go, both having run away from foster homes that were problematic for various reasons. So obviously, Maiku, who has gotten to like his privacy, has no choice but to let the cute girls both stay at his house. After all, he might be related to one of them, right? And the other one might be a stranger!
This being a Please Whatever! anime, inappropriate (but possibly not!) romantic hijinks begin to ensue. Each girl develops feelings for Maiku, which are reciprocated in Maiku's repressed and over-responsible special little way.
Adding variety to the cast and complications to the plot are:
Kousei Shimazaki, Maiku's classmate who is doing a very poor job of concealing the fact that he is gay** and has a crush on Maiku. In addition, Kousei has a Secret.
Tsubaki Oribe, a busty*** upperclassman with feelings of her own for Maiku. Her mature personality and chest make her an instant threat to whichever of Miina and Karen is not Maiku's sister. Tsubaki has a History. Alas, this story takes place in the "Onegai-verse" ("Onegai" being Japanese for "Please"), so the Established Romantic Interest is doomed to be cast aside almost instantly.
Several characters recur from Please Teacher!, including the titular**** teacher, her husband, and his friends. Their role is largely to make snarky comments and to complicate things as much as possible for their own amusement.
So another harem-ish (when you include Kousei and Tsubaki) comedy-ish anime series, which skirts taboo by contriving unbelievable reasons why what you're watching isn't problematic after all, but which in the end doesn't really flaunt it either, so the effect is more "Umm, what?" than "Ew."
Watchable, but there's better--and funnier--stuff out there.
*With apologies to Dr. Seuss.
**I have yet to see a gay character in an anime who wasn't a strong indication that you wouldn't have to scratch Japanese society very deeply to find significant cultural homophobia, particularly given the straight male characters' usual reaction to them. This could I guess be a result of the specific subset of Japanese media that I have exposed myself to, so I try not to think too much about it.
***It's a plot point, I swear! I'm not mentioning it just for the obvious sexist reasons!
****OK, that was gratuitous.